News and Press Releases of DIW Berlin

Amelie Schiprowski is awarded Best Junior Researcher by the Joachim Herz Foundation

Mon, 27 Jan 2020 10:12:00 +0200

The alumna of the Graduate Center and assistant professor at the University of Bonn, Amelie Schiprowski, receives the award by the Joachim Herz Foundation for Best Junior Researcher. A ceremony will be held in Hamburg on March 19, 2020.

The prize honors her work on "The Role of Caseworkers in Unemployment Insurance" with 25,000 euros in prize money. Congratulations for this award.

Jonas Jessen receives BeNA Innovative Research Award

Mon, 06 Jan 2020 09:50:00 +0200

Jonas Jessen, doctoral student at the DIW Graduate Center and research assistant in the Education and Family Department, receives the BeNA Innovative Research Award 2019. We congratulate Jonas for the award, which is presented annually by the Berlin Network for Employment Research (BeNA) for outstanding scientific contributions.

For his paper with the title "A Firm-Side Perspective on Parental Leave Absences", which he wrote together with Mathias Huebener, Daniel Kuehnle and Michael Oberfichtner, Jonas was honored at the BeNA Winter Workshop in November 2019. The paper deals with the impact of parental leave on companies and colleagues.

The German Data Forum (RatSWD) calls for adaptation of the German national roadmap process to increase participation of social, behavioral, and economic researchers

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 10:02:00 +0200

On December 5, 2019, DIW Berlin honored this year's graduates of the Graduate Center, the BDPEMS and the doctorates at DIW.

Mon, 09 Dec 2019 01:27:00 +0200

On December 5, 2019, DIW Berlin honored this year's graduates of the Graduate Center, the BDPEMS and the graduates at DIW. In a festive ceremony DIW President Marcel Fratzscher congratulated all new PhDs and GC Vice Dean Carsten Schröder presented the certificates. The program was musically accompanied by Benedikt Bindewald (violin) and Tabea Schrenk (cello).

Back row from left to right: Vera Zipperer, Tatsiana Kliatskova, Jakob Miethe, Martin Bruns, Dawud Ansari (Kerstin Bernoth, Marcel Fratzscher, Carsten Schröder);
Front row from left to right: Sophia Schmitz, Cortnie Shupe, Mila Staneva, Olga Spiridonova, Pauline Affeldt (Helmut Lütkepohl, Klaus Eisenack);
Photo: Florian Schuh/DIW Berlin

We also congratulate all graduates who could not participate in Berlin:
Daniel Bierbaumer, Khalid ElFayoumi, Stefan Etgeton, Thore Schlaak, Julia Schmieder, Ulrich Schneider, Maria Metzing, Helke Seitz

Thore Schlaak has successfully defended his dissertation

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 09:01:00 +0200

Thore Schlaak, who works at the Forecasting and Economic Policy Department, has successfully defended his dissertation at the Freie Universität Berlin.

The dissertation with the title "Essays on Structural Vector Autoregressions Identified Through Time-Varying Volatility" was supervised by Prof. Dr. Helmut Lütkepohl (DIW Berlin) and Prof. Dr. Lars Winkelmann (FU Berlin).

We congratulate Thore on his success and wish him all the best for his future career.

Dawud Ansari has successfully defended his dissertation

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 02:16:00 +0200

Dawud Ansari, who works at the Energy, Transportation, Environment Department, has successfully defended his dissertation at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

The dissertation with the title "Numerical models for emerging energy and resource issues: Examples from tight oil, global energy, and rural electrification" was supervised by Prof. Dr. Klaus Eisenack (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Prof. Dr. Franziska Holz (DIW Berlin).

We congratulate Dawud on his success and wish him all the best for his future career.

DIW GC graduate receives Ernst Reuter award

Tue, 05 Nov 2019 02:26:00 +0200

Dr. Annika Schnücker, who graduated in 2018, is receiving this year's Ernst-Reuter-Preis for Outstanding Young Scientists at Freie Universität, Berlin.

She is being honored for her dissertation "Model Selection Methods for Panel Vector Autoregressive Models," which is selected as one of the 5 most outstanding dissertations of 2018 at Freie Universität, Berlin.

Georg Weizsäcker, Dean of the Graduate Center, and Helmut Lütklepohl, first supervisor of the dissertation, congratulate her earning this distinguished award.

New Report Published: Building blocks for a climate-neutral European industrial sector

Wed, 30 Oct 2019 09:24:00 +0200

Marcel Fratzscher: „Mario Draghi will be remembered as a great European“

Thu, 24 Oct 2019 04:32:00 +0200

Today’s ECB decision is not spectacular and not unexpected. It signals the ECB’s hope that its September decision was sufficient for a considerable period of time to support the euro area economy. Mario Draghi has said his good-bye with pride after eight successful years at the helm of the ECB. He will be remembered as a great European who has contributed to Europe’s prosperity and unity. The ECB and Mario Draghi have prevented an economic depression and a break-up of the euro in the past eight years. Germany’s excellent economic situation today has been possible not despite, but also because of the ECB‘s monetary policy. Mario Draghi‘s promise to do “whatever it takes” was a turning point and the ultimate test that has made the euro irreversible. He is passing on a well-functioning ECB to Christine Lagarde, who nevertheless has big challenges ahead of her in reforming and strengthening the ECB. Much of the criticism of Mario Draghi in Germany has been misguided. It is high time to pay tribute in Germany to the achievements of Mario Draghi. The ECB, the euro and Mario Draghi have been abused as a scapegoat for the mistakes of national politicians too often in the past few years. Reforms of monetary union, including the completion of banking and capital market union, better rules on sovereign debt and closer coordination of fiscal policy are all necessary to make the euro sustainable and to tap its large potential.

European banking landscape between diversity, competition and concentration

Wed, 09 Oct 2019 11:27:00 +0200

The Berlin School of Economics welcomes the new Ph.D. students with a welcome Event at DIW Berlin

Fri, 04 Oct 2019 12:28:00 +0200

Joint economic forecast autumn 2019: Economy Cools Further – Industry in Recession

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 10:00:00 +0200

Abstract:

Press release of the project group "Gemeinschaftsdiagnose": German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) – Member of the Leibniz Association, ifo Institute – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich in cooperation with the KOF Swiss Economic Institute at ETH Zurich, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research in cooperation with the Institute for Advanced Studies Vienna

Germany’s leading economics research institutes have revised their forecasts for economic growth in 2019 significantly downward. They expect Germany’s gross domestic product to increase by 0.8%. This is more than one percentage point less than in autumn 2018, when the forecast was still for 1.9% growth. In contrast, the institutes confirm their previous forecast for the year 2020: gross domestic product is expected to increase by 1.8%. These are the results of the Joint Economic Forecast for spring 2019, which will be presented in Berlin on Thursday.

New DFG project: SOEP researchers study the role of health in refugees’ integration

Tue, 24 Sep 2019 03:37:00 +0200

How do refugees differ from other population groups with respect to health? And how are health inequalities between refugees and others related to living conditions and the health care system? These research questions will guide the project “Refugee Migration to Germany: A Magnifying Glass for Broader Public Health Challenges” (PH-LENS), which started work on October 1, 2019, for an initial period of three years. Jürgen Schupp, Vice-Director of the SOEP, and Hannes Kröger, Post-Doc at the SOEP will be working in PH-LENS on the subproject “Longitudinal Aspects of the Interaction between Health and Integration of Refugees in Germany” (LARGE). Their research will focus on developing a set of indicators of refugees’ physical and mental health based on data from the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees, and studying what role these indicators play over time in refugees’ integration into German society.

The Joint Committee of the German Research Foundation (DFG) approved funding for the project in July 2019 at the recommendation of the DFG Senate. Initial funding will be 425,436 euros.

Press release on the newly approved DFG research units:

PH-LENS with all sub projects in the DFG list of projects

Marcel Fratzscher: „The ECB has sent a strong signal that it takes its mandate seriously“

Thu, 12 Sep 2019 03:39:00 +0200

The ECB has caught many off-guard and has made an unavoidable, yet remarkably determined U-turn. The ECB has sent a strong signal that it takes its mandate seriously and will not be pressured by politicians, but defend its independence. The renewal of the QE program and the promise to keep rates low until the price stability mandate is fulfilled will imply many more years of low rates. The decision takes the pressure off the future ECB President Christine Lagarde to act swiftly. The German government should take the ECB’s request for more expansionary fiscal policy seriously. The ECB needs the support of fiscal policy for its monetary policy to be effective. Germany does not want to help – for instance by raising public investment and reducing its current account surplus - while other countries cannot. With its excessively high savings Germany shares responsibility for the low interest rates. Not the ECB but governments and regulators are responsible for tackling the negative side effects of monetary policy.

Vera Zipperer has successfully defended her dissertation

Thu, 12 Sep 2019 02:01:00 +0200

Vera Zipperer, who works at the Climate Policy department, has successfully defended her dissertation at the Technische Universität Berlin.

The dissertation with the title "Creating innovation incentives through environmental policies: An economic analysis" was supervised by Prof. Karsten Neuhoff, Ph.D. (DIW Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin) and Prof. Simone Borghesi, Ph.D. (European University Institute).

We congratulate Vera on her success and wish her all the best for her future career.

Berlin School of Economics Kick-Off!

Tue, 13 Aug 2019 09:36:00 +0200

On thursday September 19, 2019, the Berlin School of Economics will have its official opening ceremony at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin!

For this special occasion, we are glad to welcome Nobel Laureate Jean Tirole, who will be holding the keynote address.

This event signifies the official start of a joint Berlin-wide career development program and celebrates all those who have made it possible.

We look forward to an evening of friends, colleagues and new guests!

To register please follow the link.

Lagarde’s ECB Must Modernize

Mon, 05 Aug 2019 09:46:00 +0200

Pauline Affeldt has successfully defended her dissertation

Tue, 30 Jul 2019 07:09:00 +0200

Pauline Affeldt, who works at the Firms and Markets department, has successfully defended her dissertation at the Technische Universität Berlin.

The dissertation with the title "Three Essays on the Economics of Merger Control" was supervised by Prof. Dr. Tomaso Duso (DIW Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin) and Prof. Dr. Radosveta Ivanova-Stenzel (Technische Universität Berlin).

We congratulate Pauline on her success and wish her all the best for her future career!

Julia Schmieder Receives Two Prizes for her Research

Mon, 29 Jul 2019 12:14:00 +0200

The Vienna University of Economics and Business has awarded Julia Schmieder from the Public Economics department with the Prize for Young Researchers, as well as the Prize for Outstanding Contributions to the Economic Policy Debate in Austria.

The Graduate Center and its dean Prof. Weizsäcker congratulate her on the success!

Marcel Fratzscher: „The weakness of the euro area gives the ECB no choice“

Thu, 25 Jul 2019 03:45:00 +0200

The ECB has signaled a reversal in its policy direction. The economic weakness of the euro area gives the ECB no choice but to return to a more expansionary monetary policy stance. I expect the ECB to implement a package of measures in September, including an initial deposit rate cut and a subsequent revival of sovereign bond purchases. Germany’s industrial weakness is making it one of the weakest links in the euro area. The German government needs to reverse course on fiscal policy. Germany’s position has been for too long to rely on ECB support while complaining about low interest rates at the same time. It is high time for the German government to implement a fiscal stimulus in order to counteract high global risks and uncertainty.